Hotel Wi-Fi Linking Hackers to Traveling Entrepreneurs

Top executives representing important companies and traveling entrepreneurs should be wary of the security of all the secrets buried in their devices. These are people who carry a lot of secrets including account information, business passwords, and quotes in their laptops, tablets and smartphones. All these confidential data are now at risk of getting stolen as a recent report suggests that the five star hotels where these people retire after a long day’s work are compromised.

According to the report, a team of sophisticated hackers have engaged itself in the job of compromising luxury hotel networks and using them as launch pads for malware attacks against entrepreneurs and commercial executives traveling to the Asia-Pacific region for business meets and other commercial purposes. This venture of the hackers started around four years back and is still underway.

The team of hackers has been named “Darkhotel” by researchers representing the Kaspersky Lab. Darkhotel operates based on a pretty simple method. It introduces malicious codes into the web portals; guests use these codes to sign into local networks in order to get access to the Internet.

These infections are usually not permanent; they are used to force guests to download trojanized updates for different software applications. Once downloaded, these applications deploy spiteful malware implants that work by downloading and installing highly powerful data-stealing programs on the devices of the targeted guests.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Kaspersky researchers said that Darkhotel appears to have detailed information on the schedule of these corporate honchos; the team knows exactly when these people will be checking in or leaving the plush hotels. According to the researchers, the hackers wait for the moment these business travelers enter the Wi-Fi zone of the hotel and connect to the Internet.

The malicious code deployed into the hotel’s Wi-Fi network is disabled by the attackers the moment the victim leaves the hotel. All the related tracks also get cleaned instantly.

The quality that makes Darkhotel remarkable is its ability to carry out a perfect blend of non-targeted and highly targeted botnet-type attacks. The ease with which Darkhotel cracks digital certificate keys and its ability to make proper use of zero-day vulnerabilities testify that the team consists of highly sophisticated developers.

The researchers informed that all the portals that were once under the attack of Darkhotel hackers are now undergoing thorough review and cleaning; this will be following by a meticulous hardening process. However, no permanent solution to the problem has yet been discovered.